Thank you to my sisters Doomps and Cindy and my niece Christina for coming all the way up from the San Diego region to take me out to dinner. They said I could pick any place I wanted - fancy or otherwise- so after some hard thought, I chose the Los Angeles landmark original El Cholo on Western.I carried in a festive balloon which declared, "Happy Birthday from all of us!" and Doomps carried in her delicious upside-down pineapple cake, which had an interesting and frothy mess of frosting due to the fact that it was in a warm car. The staff at el Cholo was good enough to put it in the fridge for us, and sat us by a fireplace.
We scarfed up mountains of tortilla chips. The salsa seemed wimpy, so we asked for a spicier version. Cindy tried it and immediately seemed unimpressed. Doomps and I then tried it. And then the fire set in for all of us, except Christina, who was shying away from anything remotely hot due to stomach issues. My whole head was sweating and my eyes were stinging. Cindy and Doomps were using ice water and margaritas to douse the fire. We found out later that el Cholo makes the spicy stuff with habaneros... ay yi yi!
Anyhow, some great food was had, margaritas were flowing, and presents were opened. I got some cash, lotto tickets, a magic technology pen, and most importantly a nice time with my family... and since I'm not much of a big birthday party person, the small gathering was perfect! Thank you Doompas, Cindy and Christina!
